1923 PANAMA CANAL STEAM SHOVEL
BUCYRUS MODEL 50-B

One of the few remaining, operational, Bucyrus model 50-B still existing, this 1923
steam shovel weighs 130,000 pounds and is rated at 75 tons. 534 Bucyrus
and Bucyrus-Erie 50-B shovels were built between 1923 and 1939. They were
among the largest tracked steam shovels in the world at that time. Until
1932, most were steam powered and moved on railroad tracks. In 1923, crawler
tracks were added to the 50-B model, creating the first heavy duty, 360-degree
rotation mobile shovels.

This shovel, with 24 others, was sent to the Panama
Canal to build bridges, roads, and drains and remove the massive amounts
of dirt and rock cut from the canal bed. All the shovels but one were scrapped
at Panama. The survivor was shipped back to California and then brought
to Denver. In the early 1950s it was transported to Rollinsville by Roy
and Russell Durand, who operated it at the Lump Gulch Placer, six miles
south of Nederland, until 1978.

The shovel was donated by Steve and Laurel Higgins
to the Nederland Mining Museum. On October 21, 2005 the shovel was moved
from Lump Gulch to the Nederland Mining Museum. This national treasure links
a historic engineering achievement, the industrial revolution of the United
States, local history of Colorado mining, and good old fashioned hard work
by two brothers trying to achieve the American dream. Today it is one of the largest
operating shovel in the United States.